Armenia

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

A region and former kingdom of Asia Minor that included present-day Armenia and part of northeast Turkey and northwest Iran. Established in the eighth century B.C., it was probably the first state to adopt Christianity as a national religion (c. A.D. 303).

A country of Asia Minor east of Turkey and north of Iran. Acquired by Russia from Persia in 1828, it became a Soviet republic in 1921 and was a constituent republic of the USSR, known as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1936 to 1991. Yerevan is the capital. Population: 2,970,000.

A city of west-central Colombia west of Bogotá. It is an industrial center and transportation hub. Population: 279,000.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

proper n. Ancient kingdom in the Armenian Highland southeast of Black Sea and southwest of Caspian Sea; area now divided between Turkey, Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

proper n. A small country in Western Asia. Official name: Republic of Armenia. Official language: Armenian. Capital: Yerevan.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. a landlocked republic in southwestern Asia; formerly an Asian soviet; modern Armenia is but a fragment of ancient Armenia which was one of the world's oldest civilizations; throughout 2500 years the Armenian people have been invaded and oppressed by their neighbors

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Ἀρμενία (Armenia) (early 5th century BC) from Old Persian 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴 (Armina) (late 6th century BC); see it for more. The Old Persian name is an exonym: see հայ (hay) for the native name.

Examples

And Armenia is a shining becon of democracy, tolerance, and prosperity because they were brutally ruled by either the Ottoman Empire or the Russians for much of the past millenium.

When a regular flight en route from Tehran to Yerevan crashed after takeoff yesterday, killing all 168 on board, many in Armenia and its Diaspora were distressed, and not least since there were 40 ethnic Armenians among the dead.

The interview makes specific reference not only to the more recent detention of activists in Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also to the 10 May dispersal of youth protesting a flower festival held a little over a week after the 30 April massacre of students in a Baku university.

Russian, and French presidents calling for Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the longstanding conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, some bloggers in Armenia have launched a campaign demanding the resignation of the country's foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian.

Armenia is not successful, in part, because of decades of Communism and the fact that corruption and authoritarian power structures are the norm in business and political relations throughout most of the former USSR.